Nathan and his friend, Jayson, were making themselves a snack yesterday afternoon.   We started chatting about the math test that Nathan had studied for the night before.    He’s taking pre-calculus and has been having a little difficulty making connections between some of the concepts.  This was a big test for him and he was describing some of the problems.

That’s when Jayson made a comment about how he finally turned his grades around because he found a purpose.  Normally, I would have thought this was another one of Jayson’s  wise cracks.  He has a knack for making fun of just about anything in a humorous kind of way.  But there was something slightly different about his tone.  And when I pressed him about it he said, “I figured out what I want to do in life.  I want to go into sports medicine.  And I can’t do that if I don’t get good grades.”

I think it was one of the few times I had ever seen Jayson be dead serious.  And it was weird, because he looked like a completely different kid for a moment.  That’s when I knew that, as a junior in high school, he had found his passion.

Not all kids will find their passion that young.  And others know it as soon as they’re born.   But part of our job as parents is to help our kids discover what interests them.  It begins by asking them what they like to do.

In Jayson’s case, he loves basketball.  He’s pretty sure he’s not going to be an NBA pick any time soon.  So Plan B is to work around that.  He can still be involved in sports, just on a different level.  And since his open heart surgery a couple of years ago, his mom helped him get involved in working with other kids who have had surgery.  Through this, he discovered his place in life, his purpose.

If we can help our kids look for their purpose through the things they love, the chances of them having careers and lives they enjoy is greatly increased.  And you can bet that if I ever need to see a sports medicine doctor, I want it to be someone like Jayson, someone who worked hard to follow his passion.